Mike, the Verizon tower is just behind my house, over by the cable company's reception area.  My Verizon works in the basement of the house, and everywhere around with perfect reception.  My problems occur at the farm, in the bottoms, and depending on call volume can drop out at times.  As you know from your experience with radio, it consistently drops calls when you really need it, and works excellent when making or receiving relatively useless calls on the farm.

 The old bag phones worked excellent on the farm, the new cells are a little shakey on dependability.  That is why I am very concerned about the ability of a new phone to be at the peak of performance for it's peer group.

And, no, after carrying a phone in my shirt pocket for so many years, I have no desire to go back to a bag phone, dependable as they were!